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I thought this would have a more mysterious atmosphere but they casually revealed the identities of the main characters without explaining much to us. Not that it's a problem since the setting seems to be pretty simple and cliché. Humans, demons, and demons hunters; we've even got the super special MC and the heroine who happens to be the last of her clan. This episode played all the tropes straight. Kinda boring overall, but I thought the same of Hyouka's first episode and I ended up loving the show, so I'll withhold any judgment for now. Even if the content is bad, the shiny Kyoani packaging is enough to make it worth watching. Some really great animation in this episode. It's refreshing to see them do action again.

One thing I found intriguing in this ep is that the students didn't pay any mind to the Youma. Is it because everybody has knowledge of the supernatural in this setting or could they simply not see the creature? I'm hoping for the former but it's most likely the latter.

Well I should have expected it, but Kyoukai no Kanata first episode was mediocre. It has great visuals and animation and a decent soundtrack as expected of Kyoani's production values, and it's encouraging to see them tackle a new genre for once, but do they really need to use the same old "Kyoani" style quirks, moe antics and juvenile dialogue even for a supernatural/action series? The main female character in particular, wow did I want to stab her (pun intended). She's just another run of the mill cutesy, shy annoying moeblob and quite out of place given the setting. Yeh they tried to be all serious with the way she was stabbing betamaleguy (forgot his name), but that didnt mess well with what she was like later.

Some people have been comparing this to how Hyouka started, but I have to disagree. Hyouka was pretty understated at the start, too understated I would say to the point it was boring (until it became the fantastic piece of work over its course), but this just has all the checkboxes ticked for a typical Kyoani show with the moe antics, silly comedy, bland characters and dialogue but with a supernatural theme on the side. At this point I think it's just gonna be one of those "oh we are pretending to be something, but really we are just a moe/comedy show at heart with action/supernatural elements only as a side" that we have been seeing too much by the studio. The only thing that could make it worse is forced melodrama/romance in its 2nd half which isnt off the table either considering what the ED was like. Talking about OP/EDs, I quite liked the OP as it had a melancholic feel similar to Hyouka's OP (not as good though) but the ED was pretty garbage with that boy-band like vocalist.

Don't know about the characters being cliche or not.
I can see how can look at the cast and just go "well the author just decided to throw a bunch of character archetypes together and make a story on the fly"

I give it an episode or two though because I think the voice acting is pretty strong and nicely delivered.

The main problem here isn't the writing or the characters being bland etc., it's that the direction is abstoundingly awkward. None of the jokes were timed right, and the tempo of the story is just slow. It's like the director had all the finished scenes in the episode laid out in front of him and he doesn't know how to piece it together so that the story would flow smoothly. The material here really would've been better in the hands of Ishihara.

The animations as expected was great, but I thought Ishidate really dropped the ball with how this episode turned out. Hopefully the next one will be better.

At the moment this is a solid "Hmmmm..." for me. I don't quite know what to make of it. I feel just a bit out of the loop. All the basic stuff can be understood (there are demons, demon-hunters, half-demons, all that), but it doesn't seem like I really have a feel for the world or the characters. I don't "get" the boy or the girl or the childhood friend. Who they are, what they are, why they are who and what they are. They tell it, but I don't feel it. I think they all needed more introduction. Or maybe it's just early days yet.

That was a huge turn off for me right there.. Enough to just stop and delete the episode without further thought.

Strike 2: Great, she's a Fuko clone... *sigh*

Strike 3: She did it 6 times...

I just assumed she (and others like her) can sense whether a person is a normal human or not. And since our standard-kyoani-protagonist™ is a half-breed, it'd work.

Not a bad first episode. It's typical Kyoani work so I already knew what to expect, and it didn't disappoint or exceed my expectations. Although it's probably the first time that I dislike the main girl™ on a Kyoani show.

I feel that the cinematography was a bit bad in this episode. Especially how bland they treated the scene with Mirai stabbing Akihito. I dunno who's to blame for this — if it is either Jukki Hanada or Ishidate himself. Anyway, the latter half was handled much better though.

Awarding a default score of 7 for this series.
Hopefully, the next few episodes are handled better.

I'm always over-enthusiastic for first episodes, but I must say that many of the things people are complaining about are what made me like the episode. The inexplicable and sudden stabbing, the lack of emphasis on the jokes, etc. I prefer things to be under-emphasized to being made obvious with a big, smooth ka-boom of timing or sound or image. But the fact that this is the director's first overall directoral gig (he has done episodes) does make one suspect that he may not be a master of his craft just yet.

Warning label: Shinbou is just about my favorite director, and I didn't like K-On but loved Hyouka.

I'm always over-enthusiastic for first episodes, but I must say that many of the things people are complaining about are what made me like the episode. The inexplicable and sudden stabbing, the lack of emphasis on the jokes, etc. I prefer things to be under-emphasized to being made obvious with a big, smooth ka-boom of timing or sound or image. But the fact that this is the director's first overall directoral gig (he has done episodes) does make one suspect that he may not be a master of his craft just yet.

Warning label: Shinbou is just about my favorite director, and I didn't like K-On but loved Hyouka.

You like understatement but Shinbo is your favourite director? I'm sensing a disconnect here.

Personally, I never expected the story for the show to be good and I'm just chiming in for the animation and to see what they do with the action sequences. Unfortunately my expectations seem to have been met with the first episode. It's really by the numbers in structure and set-up, and I felt the dialogue had a number of jarring disconnects and cheesy lines. It was fairly bogged down in exposition too, and they could have avoided a chunk of that by rewriting some scenes and rearranging some others.